Comments on: $7000 per home in Detroit http://www.jordoncooper.com/2009/02/25/7000-per-home-in-detroit/ A weblog about urbanism, technology, & culture. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:54:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mark Byron http://www.jordoncooper.com/2009/02/25/7000-per-home-in-detroit/comment-page-1/#comment-6821 Mark Byron Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:27:42 +0000 http://www.jordoncooper.com/2009/02/25/7000-per-home-in-detroit/#comment-6821 A quick follow-up. I checked in with the NOAA web site and Detroit had 25 inches of snow in January, double the norm and only four inches off the record. Not good house-shopping weather. A quick follow-up. I checked in with the NOAA web site and Detroit had 25 inches of snow in January, double the norm and only four inches off the record. Not good house-shopping weather.

]]> By: Mark Byron http://www.jordoncooper.com/2009/02/25/7000-per-home-in-detroit/comment-page-1/#comment-6820 Mark Byron Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:19:56 +0000 http://www.jordoncooper.com/2009/02/25/7000-per-home-in-detroit/#comment-6820 Not too many people are going to be in the housing market in Detroit city in January; it's a lousy time to move and (if I recall correctly) it's been a bad snow month. My parents live 100 miles northwest of Detroit and have had a rough winter so far. So, what houses do sell would tend to be foreclosures, possibly in tough neighborhoods; there are nice parts of Detroit proper, but the vast majority of the middle-class-and-up housing is in the suburbs. My guess is that the median house in Detroit would be closer to 50,000, but not too many normal house sales are going down. When will Detroit recover? Good question. A renaissance in the black urban culture that cuts down on crime and other social dysfunctions and some sort of economic renewal that brings businesses back to the city rather than the suburbs and exurbs; some sort of brownfields legislation that encourages clean-up of old factory property rather than letting them sit idle would help. 2050, maybe? Cleveland was the Mistake By the Lake 40 years ago and has a revived downtown, including new sports arenas, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a entertainment district on the Flats of the Cuyahoga River about where the river burned in the late 60s. It can be done. Not too many people are going to be in the housing market in Detroit city in January; it’s a lousy time to move and (if I recall correctly) it’s been a bad snow month. My parents live 100 miles northwest of Detroit and have had a rough winter so far.

So, what houses do sell would tend to be foreclosures, possibly in tough neighborhoods; there are nice parts of Detroit proper, but the vast majority of the middle-class-and-up housing is in the suburbs. My guess is that the median house in Detroit would be closer to 50,000, but not too many normal house sales are going down.

When will Detroit recover? Good question. A renaissance in the black urban culture that cuts down on crime and other social dysfunctions and some sort of economic renewal that brings businesses back to the city rather than the suburbs and exurbs; some sort of brownfields legislation that encourages clean-up of old factory property rather than letting them sit idle would help.

2050, maybe? Cleveland was the Mistake By the Lake 40 years ago and has a revived downtown, including new sports arenas, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a entertainment district on the Flats of the Cuyahoga River about where the river burned in the late 60s. It can be done.

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